I recently bought a dvd, filled with 50 years worth of x-men comics. I’ve been reading them everyday, and this has led to some interesting observations.

-X-men was the first superhero team with a woman playing a significant role.
Jean Grey was equal in power, if not more powerful, to the other x-men. She was critical to their mission success, intelligent and pretty. She was going to college. She was a modern woman.

Compared with other superhero teams, Jean Grey was a startling change; Janet Pym(of the Avengers) could shrink and sting people. Invisible girl could, well, turn invisible. They were treated as minor characters, both by the other members of the team, and by the writers.

However, there were many instances where her teenage cohorts would forget about her powers, and she’d have to remind them. The only one that never did was the mentalic Professor Xavier. And as the series progressed, as Scott Summers begins to love Jean Grey, he stops forgetting as well.

-The X-men have evolved, both literally and figuratively, in their thematic approach, and their level of discourse. If compare any of the first 3 years of the comics, with one from 2001, the change is immense. The x-men in 2001 are facing a designer gene situation, where druggies would take pills, that would transform them into mutants for a few hours. In 1966, their biggest challenger is Magneto, whom regularly targets the army and its bases.  The difference in the approach, and the maturity is stunning. We have character depth, dialogue, and motivations.

Some of the best issues are in the last 8 years, where we see morality, ethics, and corruption take place. Our heroes are growing up, along with their readership. My favourite issues are the ones where Ororo(Storm) runs away to Africa, and has to face what Africa is; deadly in many places, abandoned, and needing a hero. She gets to know a small starving village, and their leader. The dramatic moment comes, however, when a baby is born to the village, and the village elder, her new friend, leaves the village to die. For all of her powers, her past beliefs of herself as a goddess… and she is faced with something she can’t fight: death. She grows and changes from this. It was touching and dramatic, with some of the best art around.

Writing changes and evolves, and it must necessarily grow.  Stories that you’ve written four or five years ago may seem to be incredibly shallow and cliched, but there is room. I personally have a pretty damn good rpg storyline that I reworked from a much older, much cliched storyline I wrote in grade 10. Don’t throw out your old ideas… grow them. They gain new depth for having percolated in your head. They gain new realism with your newfound experience. Last thought, how long did John Milton work on his very brilliant Paradise Lost? Nine years. He started in 1658, and published in 1667. Good work takes time, in all disciplines.